An apparatus and a method for producing cores of a fat-containing confectionery mass are known from German patent No. DE 696 19 478 T2 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,902,621. The apparatus includes an extruder into which semi-solidified non-flowable chocolate buttons are introduced. The chocolate strip produced thereby is fed into a molding apparatus including two oppositely driven molding rollers including a plurality of impressions. The non-flowable chocolate mass is then deformed to attain cores of chocolate in the molding apparatus. The chocolate mass is not treated with respect to its temperature in the extrusion apparatus or in the molding apparatus.
An apparatus and a method for producing bar-shaped confectioneries are known from German patent application No. DE 28 27 404 A1 corresponding to UK patent application No. GB 2 023 483 A. The confectionery mass in its liquid form is applied onto a cooling roller being rotatingly driven. In this way, a film of confectionery mass is formed on the surface area of the cooling roller. This film is then removed from the cooling roller, it is dropped onto a conveyor belt, and it is transported away as a strip. In the following, the strip can be fed to a further processing unit, for example to be cut into smaller strips or other product pieces.
Another apparatus for producing chocolate cores is generally known in the art. The known apparatus includes a cooled molding apparatus for forming the cores. The molding apparatus includes two molding rollers including a multitude of impressions into which the liquid chocolate mass flows to form the cores. The molding rollers are rotatingly driven in opposite directions. The liquid chocolate mass is tempered by a tempering machine being located upstream, and it is poured into the gap between the molding rollers being located next to one another in a horizontal direction. The molding rollers being driven in a synchronous way and in opposite directions then hold the liquid confectionery mass in the impressions.
The known molding rollers are strongly cooled such that the surface temperature of the molding rollers is substantially below the crystallization temperature of the chocolate mass. Thus, the viscosity of the chocolate mass is quickly increased and the chocolate mass solidifies during continued rotation of the molding rollers. The result is an endless strip having a thin layer and cores corresponding to the impressions in the molding rollers. This strip is then transported away by a conveyor belt.
There often is the problem with this known method that the strip sticks to the molding rollers and is thus not correctly dropped on the conveyor belt. Another problem is that the temperature decrease of the chocolate mass is not sufficiently attained by the molding rollers to attain the required level of solidification of the chocolate mass. Correspondingly, the cores are not yet stable enough when being dropped on the conveyor belt such that undesired deformation of the cores results. To reduce this problem, the rotational velocity of the molding rollers has to be reduced. However, this results in a decrease of the output of the apparatus.